"I honestly don't think they (the association) care about small schools at all," he said. "I tried to explain how ridiculous the schedule is and their eyes glazed over."

Danehy's criticism reflects a growing discontent among some schools over changes enacted recently by the state's governing body for high-school sports.

The association oversees all aspects of sports, from rules to game officials, for its 275 member schools, who pay fees to the organization.

Its changes are part of a five-year strategic plan that began in 2008, aimed at saving districts money and improving competition.

But many district and school officials, coaches and parents complain the association's changes are detrimental to the student-athlete experience.

They especially point to two changes that took full effect this year:

- A new computer scheduling system that gives more weight in matchups to location of schools.

- A decrease in the number of divisions, which means fewer postseason tournaments. Both changes are aimed at helping schools and the association tame the rising cost of athletic competition, particularly travel. Having fewer tournaments also is intended to raise the caliber of teams in postseason.

But while the changes save travel money, some school officials and parents are frustrated and outraged over the side effects of the shift.

Schools such as Green Fields face uneven schedules, which they say are hard on players and disruptive to academics.

With fewer divisions and tournaments, small schools now must compete more often against larger schools, meaning more potentially lopsided losses and less opportunity to play in post-season tournaments.

At least one small school canceled its varsity football season this year because of the changes.

Association officials defend the moves, pointing out that many school officials wanted to cut costs as well. They say the changes have cut schools' travel costs by 35 percent.

School budgets are strained because of state budget cutbacks driven by the recession. School districts have cut teachers, administrators and other staff and have increased class sizes.

Mary Wack, athletic director at Safford High School, said, "I know our district is struggling to keep teachers, so who am I to complain about cutting tournaments and saving money?"

AIA's role

The non-profit AIA sets the rules, assigns game officials and runs postseason tournaments in all high-school sports for its member schools. It also settles disputes over eligibility and transfers. Public schools do not have to join the AIA, but most high schools are members.

Chuck Schmidt, associate executive director, said one of the misconceptions the public has is that the group makes decisions without input from the high-school community. Its legislative council, which approves bylaws, is composed of 44 high-school officials from around the state. Its 11-member executive board includes one member from each of the five conferences. Advisory committees for each sport consist of coaches and athletic directors.

"People throwing stones have every right to do so. But when they start to hear the facts and how things are vetted, discussed and created, they'll see it's a cumulative effort, and not a couple of people in a room smoking cigars and trying to do evil on people," Schmidt said.

Still, some coaches don't believe they are given enough input into the group. Earlier this year, more than 50 percent of the state's high-school football coaches signed a petition asking to be more involved in decisions about their sport.

Hamilton High School coach Steve Belles said: "If you ask a majority of our coaches if we could start over and have somebody else run it (the AIA) and we'd have input, 100 percent of coaches would go for it."

The dissension grew sharper after the AIA began implementing its strategic plan last year.

Schmidt said district superintendents were concerned about the rising costs of athletics and schools' ability to pay for the programs.

District and charter schools pay fees to the AIA to coordinate and sponsor their sports. Each school pays a base membership cost, which the AIA cut in 2009 by 7.5 percent, from $2,246 to $2,077. The schools also pay a participation fee for every athlete, so larger schools typically pay more. The AIA in 2009 cut that fee from $215 to $199.

Schools sometimes pass a portion of those fees on to parents. Schools also pay travel expenses for each team.

When the recession struck, schools began cutting expenses.

By 2010, the Yuma Union High School District had banned its teams from traveling outside the area for regular-season competition. The Tolleson Union High School District dropped four sports: golf, cross country, swimming and tennis.

With an eye on the worsening economy, Schmidt said the association brought together more than 750 high-school officials, parents and community members in 2008 to address the concerns of the superintendents.

Changes roll out

The association took a two-pronged approach:

It created a computer scheduling system based on geography that reduced travel to games, which cut costs for schools, according to Schmidt. The group also reduced the number of state tournaments in every sport, from 121 to 71 in total - a result of combining classes, now called divisions, which are based on school size.

Basketball, for example, went from seven state championships to four; cross country, from six to four; football, from seven to six.

One goal was to reduce the number of athletes who qualified for postseason competition. "Should the kid that shoots 120 make the state golf tournament?" asked executive director Harold Slemmer.

The other was to cut schools' travel costs and the association's costs for running tournaments.

"Awards cost us $210,000 in 2007," Schmidt said. "I want to recognize kids but, my goodness. Now this year we're at $95,000, which is reasonable."

The association also raised ticket prices to $10 for state tournament games to help offset the costs of staging the events. That angered some families.

Backlash develops

Some coaches and athletic directors say the changes hurt the very people the AIA should be most concerned about - kids.

"I sincerely believe the further people in responsibility get away from the kids, the more they see them as numbers rather than human beings with hearts and goals," said Danehy, the Tucson Green Fields coach.

Smaller schools are particularly upset by the fewer tournaments. Danehy examined the results of last spring's state track meet, in which kids from what used to be called Class 1A schools had to compete against kids from larger Class 2A schools. The two classes are now in one division, with one state tournament.

The result, according to association data: Of the 136 athletes who ascended to the medal stand, only 16 were from former 1A schools. That compared with 107 medal winners from 1A schools the previous spring.

"Our coaches aren't too happy with it. But they and our kids have to step up if they want to be as competitive as they have been in the past," said Joseph City High School athletic director Mike Sterkowitz.

Steve Hogen, athletic director for Mesa Public Schools, said he agreed with reducing the number of tournaments but added, "If I were one of the smaller schools, I'd be very concerned. I know what it means for kids to have the opportunity to compete for the state championship."

The results of the new computer scheduling also upset small schools because, in some cases, it became competitively unbalanced.

Last year, for example, Phoenix North Pointe Prep, a charter school with 490 students, finished 2-7 and lost its last three games in 2A by a combined score of 188-19. This year, the computer, using geography to make up the schedule, had North Pointe playing defending state champion Phoenix Thunderbird (1,561 students), traditional powerhouse Glendale Cactus (1,429), Phoenix Cortez (1,308) and Phoenix Moon Valley (1,548).

Worried about his players' safety, North Pointe Principal Richard Gow decided to drop the varsity program for this two-year scheduling block.

"I'm sure the AIA has a lot of reasons for what it does," Gow said, "but it's hard to understand why they wouldn't take into account a school like ours that has had unbelievable growth but doesn't have a massive sports program."

Examples like North Pointe can be found in every sport. After seeing the computer schedules for Bowie High School and San Simon High School, San Simon Unified School District Superintendent Curry Donaldson sent an e-mail to the AIA that read in part, "I was mortified when I saw that we had games scheduled on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and sometimes those three days in a row. . . . I will not allow for my students to miss valuable academic time to fulfill an AIA-generated computerized schedule."

The e-mail continued, "We are a combined high-school population of 52 students. Why are we scheduled to play Safford High, a student population of more than 900 students?"

Schmidt said, "Coaches don't like it (computer scheduling) because they can't play who they want to play. . . . I think right now the system is as good as any in the country."

There always will be some grumbling among AIA administrators and coaches. But Ken Van Winkle, superintendent of the Heber-Overgaard Unified school district, who is a member of the AIA executive board and was its president in 2009 and 2010, said the AIA's critics are too focused on their own team or school to fully understand the organization's policies or decisions.

Schmidt said he wishes others would try to appreciate the AIA's task.

"Are we ever going to create a system that 100 percent satisfies every member school?" he said. "Probably not. But we are seen as model of efficiency by other states."